LONE TREE

A lot of us play a short game. We’re looking for the quick craft, the instant purchase, the two-minute meal. And in economic world that favors efficiency and speed, you can’t really fault that.

The world of model aeronautics can be a short game. You can buy an airplane that can be assembled in minutes, click it together, and run outside and fly it. That’s remarkable.

But flying remote controlled aircraft can be a long game too, and that’s the one that the Lone Tree Flyers are playing.

The RC club will host their fifth Fun Fly on June 13-14, where some 35 pilots from across the region, from Colorado to Ohio, will gather with their fleets, camp out, picnic, and enjoy socializing with others of like minds. Oh, and also fly as much as they want.

“The objective of this is to attract pilots,” club President John Biondo says. “It’s known as a fun fly, which means there aren’t any regulations or judging or things like that. It’s basically, bring your airplane, fly, and enjoy yourself.”

An interesting thing happens when you do that year after year. You get to see people improve their flight skills, refine their craftsmanship, and grow as people. You get to make progress on your own journey.

Take Luke, for example, Biondo says. He was 11 years old when he and his dad first came out to Lone Tree from Colorado to the Fun Fly. This will be their third year at the event, and Luke has “grown up, and he’s become quite an incredible pilot.”

Or look at Roger Weber. A member of the Lone Tree Flyers, he’s been an RC airplane pilot for a long time, but only last year decided to spice things up by trying a helicopter, and his flight skills continue to improve.

And how about Biondo himself: a flight instructor, he sees personal progress and achievement in devoting time and attention to crafting an airplane in tribute to a dear friend and WWII vet.

“I lost count at 3,600 hours,” he says. “I could have built a real airplane.”

That’s part of what’s neat about model aeronautics: there’s something in it for everyone. Whatever your goals or focus, you can pursue or express that through participation in this activity, this adventure.

The Lone Tree Flyers are especially interested in attracting youth to their sport. Biondo sees it as a gateway to career exploration, perhaps specifically in aviation, but not necessarily so.

“You go through the journey, so to speak, of learning about model airplanes, flying them. And then some of the youngsters end up growing up and going into the military, either flying drones in the military or full-scale aircraft. And who knows, they may become an astronaut someday,” he says. “So, it’s this journey that you go through, and we are a small part of the journey, but the really foundational part of the journey, if you will, in model aviation, which is really cool if you think about it from that standpoint.”

For Biondo himself, learning to fly model airplanes with his dad at age six was a “huge influence” on his own career path. Although he didn’t go into professional aviation, he “merged my engineering and model making background and artistic background into a career” in industrial and product design, eventually designing medical devices, security products, and office furniture.

An exciting development for the group this year is the receipt of a Take Off & Grow (TAG) grant from the Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA), the nonprofit advocacy group for model aviation enthusiasts. The funds they receive will go toward developing more outreach programs to area schools, something they stared doing last year with the Muscatine school district.

“We provided four half-hour programs,” Weber says, where he and fellow Lone Tree Flyer Phil Eason brought model planes into the classroom and showed a video about helicopter flight. “We’re trying to maybe expand that or build on that a little bit.”

Pilots and spectators who come out to this year’s Fun Fly will appreciate another improvement for the club this year: a new safety fence at the Lone Tree airfield, which is located behind the American Legion. Gone is the orange snow fence, and in its place is a cyclone fence that “looks gorgeous,” Biondo says. It also allows the club to put up advertising for RC aircraft companies and hobby shops, representatives of which plan to attend the event.

All of this growth was made possible by Gary Kleinmeyer, Biondo notes, the “Godfather” of the Lone Tree Flyers and airfield. It was Kleinmeyer who had the vision and put in the work to transform a plot of land that served as a post-derecho dump site into a “really, really beautiful flying site.”

It was to Kleinmeyer’s shop the club members headed one recent windy day when conditions were unfavorable for flying. Instead, they decided to work on “some mechanical things,” and “it ended up being a full day of five guys, I think we were there a total of eight hours just working on airplanes, and we had a blast doing it,” Biondo says. “It was just fun.”

Get a taste of that fun on Friday, June 13 and Saturday, June 14 at the Lone Tree Fun Fly, which takes place at the airfield located at 300 N. Devoe St., Lone Tree. Spectators are welcome; expect a range of aircraft, dazzling mid-air acrobatics, and plenty of smoke trails.